Wedding Photography: The List
As your wedding photographer, our photographic style is fine art, photojournalistic coverage of events in real time. Long lists or numerous requests for posed photographs will reduce our ability to find and capture naturally occurring moments. We capture the day naturally, as events unfold. However, we're often asked about photographs that we capture during the family portrait session that is either done before or after the ceremony. We've put together a list of wedding photographs that are commonly taken during the family portrait (aka formals) timeframe. For planning purposes, you should budget a minimum of three (3) minutes per photograph grouping to account for delays due to organization or availability. For example, a list of 30 posed photos could take 60 minutes or more. On some occasions, the photos take a little longer than expected. For the family shots, we recommend that you appoint a person from each family to help gather everyone for the group photos. They should be given printed family shot lists beforehand to help the family portraits happen quickly and efficiently. It is important to coordinate this beforehand to ensure that your preferred guests and family members will be present during the photographing of the Group Pictures- and no one will be left out of the photos.
You should also provide this information to your "event guide/coordinator." In most cases, this role is best served by one or more family members who know the parties involved. They will be responsible for the list and for making sure that the folks who need to be in the photos are available at the appointed time. Wedding coordinators are often too busy coordinating your day to take on this task. We'd also recommend that you assign a backup guide and give them copies of everything. This is often important because the person designated by the couple will sometimes fail in his or her duties (for a variety of reasons; they are not always personally at fault).
Formal Group Portraits (Pre or Post Ceremony)
The list of groupings seen below are what we're commonly asked to photograph in the time period immediately before or following the ceremony. The "Optional Portraits" are sometimes included based on the family dynamic and the time available.
• Bride and Groom
• Bride with Parents
• Bride with Mom
• Bride with Dad
• Bride and Groom with Bride's Parents
• Bride and Groom with Bride's Parents, Siblings and Grandparents
• Bride with siblings
• Bride and Groom with Bride's and Groom's Parents
• Groom with Parents
• Groom with Mom
• Groom with Dad
• Bride and Groom with Groom's Parents
• Bride and Groom with Groom's Parents, Siblings and Grandparents
• Groom with siblings
• Bride and Groom with Sons / Daughters
Optional Portraits
• Bride and Groom with Special Friends and Family
Creative Session Portraits
The Creative Session is the timeframe you've set aside for your more fashion forward (aka Romantic) photographs. Those individuals in attendance will include the bride and groom and bridesmaids and groomsmen. Typically, family members or other members of the wedding party are not present. It is up to the bride and groom to determine how much they want to involve the wedding party in this part of their photographic coverage. We typically allot half of the Creative Session to working with the bride, groom, and wedding party while the other half is for the bride and groom only. Please note that you don't have to include these portraits on the list you send for our review, because unless you specify otherwise, we'll do our best to capture all of these photos--time permitting.
• Bride Only
• Groom Only
• Bride and Groom
• Bride and Groom with Bridesmaids and Groomsmen
• Bride with Bridesmaids
• Groom with Groomsmen
Optional Portraits
• Bride and Groom with Maid of Honor and Best Man
• Bride with Groomsmen
• Groom with Bridesmaids